Contract for the Provision of Independent Visitor Service (IVS) in Swansea

This contract will commission an Independent Visitor Service in Swansea. It is a statutory service and supports children and young people aged 3 to 18 years who are looked after by Swansea Council.

The service aims to provide consistent, positive relationships for these young individuals, who often experience significant disruptions in their lives. The contract supports the primary objective of the Independent Visitor Service, which is to offer a stable, supportive relationship to children and young people in looked after care, through volunteer Independent Visitors (IVs).

These volunteers are not social workers or part of Child and Family services; instead, they act as friends and mentors, providing a listening ear and engaging in various activities with the children. Under the Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act 2014, Section 98, “A local authority looking after a child must appoint an independent person to be the child’s visitor if (a) the child falls within a category specified in regulations or, (b) in any other case, it appears to the authority that it would be in the child’s interests to do so.